The Heart of a Stranger
by The OC Architect
Summary: Alexander and Michael Munroe have been inseparable since birth. Always by each others' side. Yin and yang. The two will always and forever be best friends. When they move to LA for their freshman year, the twins meet the Washingtons. Four years later, Josh Washington invites the boys on a trip to their parent's Lodge. And that's a trip that Alex will never forget. Or escape.
1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:** This here's for MoonWolfAtlantis. He wanted me to write another Until Dawn story with another OC. No prob. The amount of off-the-book writing he wants me to do? A bit out there. But I'll be damned if I don't do it, because it's a freaking good idea! The update schedule will probably be a bit more erratic than usual for this one because of my Percy Jackson and Agents of SHIELD fanfic, and my schedules are usually pretty bad. This one's just gonna be worse. Teehee.

Anyway, there's gonna be _a lot_ of background here, folks, meaning, it'll be few chapters before we actually get to the Prank. I have a main layout of the chapters before the Prank though, it's looking to be a lot, so if background isn't your thing, then you shouldn't read this. It's gonna start in Mike's ninth grade year. The majority of the characters are in ninth, except Josh who is in tenth, and Matt and Ashley, who are in eighth. I did a LOT of wikia research for this. You're welcome.

So yeah. Review, and Follow, and Favorite, AND READ. READING IS GOOD. Please enjoy!

This one's for you, MoonWolfAtlantis.

 **Rating:** T, duh. There'll be explicit language, because of the nature of the game, but y'all know what to expect.

 **Disclaimer:** All rights go to Supermassive Games, the lucky bastards. I only own my OCs.

 **Editing:** All editing is done by me, so all mistakes are mine.

* * *

 _Prologue – September, 2010_

"I think this is the last box," grunted my twin brother, Mike, as he set down the large cardboard cube. With a thud, it hit the ground, dust flying off of it as we looked around out new room.

It was significantly larger than our last one, which would make it a lot easier to divide the space between the two of us. The house over all was a bit smaller than our one in Miami, but I didn't necessarily mind.

Mike and I were in the land where dreams came true: Los Angeles, California. Our dad had gotten a job offer out here and pounced on it, whisking our family of four out to the west.

Mike and I didn't mind, not really. Sure, we left behind friends back in Miami, but it was middle school. Middle school didn't matter. Between Mike and I, we were our own best friend. Here, though, in LA, we were starting our freshman year. We were ready to make new friends and just have an all around blast. That was what LA was for, right? Of course.

"Now all we have to do is unpack all these boxes," I groaned, looking around our empty bedroom. The walls were whitewashed and the carpet was a dark gray color, which I was thankful knowing Mike's clumsiness.

Unpacking was going to be the death of me. Mike wasn't much of a hoarder, but I was. I still had my third grade art project that I'd done at thanksgiving. It was a hand turkey, because creativity wasn't really relevant when I was nine.

"Or," said Mike, stretching out the word. "We could just go outside and get a look at the neighborhood? Mom and Dad won't care…right?"

A grin spread across my face. "Right."

Mike and I bounded down the stairs, blowing by our parents.

"Hey! Where are you boys going?" yelled our dad.

"Out!" was our one word response, but by now, our parents didn't question it. They knew were we free spirits. We were also absolutely crazy, but that was a minor thing. Our parents learned to get used to it, and they never said anything, but I think they enjoyed having active kids. It kept us out of their hair.

We reached the edge of our driveway and turned the corner, walking down the sidewalk. Across from us, a girl and boy played with a football, looking over at us every once in a while. Their house was gigantic. It was across the street, big, and fancy, and I was seriously hoping we'd make friends because man, it was a sweet place.

It was a bit cooler than Miami, but overall, the heat was still there. Dressed in cargo shorts, Converse, and a Dolphins jersey, I was still sweating.

"Man, this is gonna be awesome!" gushed Mike. "We're gonna meet hot California girls, go surfing, and the girls! I mean, we are literally in Hollywood, bro."

I laughed. "It's something else, that's for sure. I still can't believe Dad took this job –" I didn't finish though, because an object struck me in the back of the head.

Mike cracked up and we slowly turned around to the side. Across the street, the boy was laughing really hard and the girl was covering her mouth silently. By my feet, was a football.

After a rather expensive looking car raced down the road, the boy and girl crossed over to us. The boy was still cracking up with laughter and the girl looked absolutely horrified.

"I'm so, so sorry, man," snorted the boy between laughs.

"Ohmygod, I'm so, so, so, so sorry, I can't throw a football to save my life! Josh was yelling at me throw it and I can't believe I hit you, holy crap…"

The guy burst out laughing again, dying at the girl's apology. I wanted to respond but my mouth opened and closed like a fish.

The first thing that struck me about the two was that they looked similar, and I'd venture to say they were brother and sister. The second thing that hit me was how gorgeous the girl was.

She had short, straight black hair about to her shoulders. Her skin was a flawless shade of olive and her eyes were dark like cocoa. She was tall, too, nearly my height. Skinny jeans hugged her legs in all the right places, accentuating her curves, and her baseball shirt was tightly fit too. Of course, I didn't really notice all this at first, I was only fourteen at the time. I just thought she was super hot.

She was still going on about how sorry she was. "…don't usually come out to play football with him, but he said we were getting new neighbors and we wanted to see if they had any kids! Clearly they do, I mean, here you are, two very attractive guys. And by that, I mean you're very nice looking! You aren't hoodlums! So we came out to scout out the new folks, not in a bad way, no not at all, and I'm rambling. How's your head feeling?"

The girl stopped abruptly, breathing a bit heavily from the word vomit that just spewed from her mouth. I was looking at her, eyebrows raised, trying to form a coherent sentence, and failing miserably.

Mike jabbed me in the ribs and interjected smoothly, sticking his hand out, "I'm sure he's fine, he's got a hard head. Mike Munroe. This is my twin brother, Alex."

I broke out of my trance caused by the girl and grinned crookedly at the two, giving a little half wave.

"I'm Josh Washington, and this is –"

"Beth. Beth Washington."

I shook the girl's hand with a smile. "It's nice to meet you both," I said.

We released hands after a painfully long handshake and I bent down to pick up the football that Beth had thrown at me.

Unfortunately, Beth had the same idea, and our heads collided together. We instantly shot back up, rubbing our heads, a scowl on our faces. But after seeing each other's identical responses, we both grinned and Beth gestured to the ball. "Go for it."

I chuckled and bent down, grabbing the football and tossing it to Josh. Josh grinned at me and caught it. "Say, how about you guys come on over? It's been a while since we got anyone new on the block. We can introduce you guys to Hannah!"

Mike and I looked at each other, having one of our signature telepathic conversations. It went something like:

Mike: _Let's go._

Me: _Maybe we should tell Mom and Dad._

Mike: _Dude. Second sister, maybe she's hot? Because dibs on Beth_.

Me: _Yeah, okay. Whatever, let's just go_.

We looked back at the siblings. "Let's go," we said at the same time and they gave us a weird look.

"So…twins actually do that?" asked Josh, an amused look on his face.

I shrugged. "More than –"

"– you know," Mike finished.

Josh frowned, looking at Beth. "You and Hannah don't do that, do you?"

"That's our little secret," Beth replied with a wink.

We all laughed and followed them across the street.

The house seemed to get bigger and bigger as we approached it. I lifted my head to take in the massive size of it, when someone fell into step beside me. I looked over to see Beth. She was smirking at me.

"Your house is intimidating," I muttered.

Beth laughed, a melodious sound in my ears. "It seems big from the outside, but it's not as massive on the inside. Trust me, it's not that bad."

"You live there," I pointed out. "You're used to it.

"I do live here," she conceded with a smile, then she bumped my shoulder with hers. "You'll get used to it too."

I wasn't really sure what that meant. Did that mean she wanted to see me more? I was fourteen, I didn't know jack. But I was hoping that was what it meant.

We all stood as a group on the porch as Josh turned around, a massive, shit-eating grin on his face. "Welcome, new friends, to Casa de Washington. Follow closely so you don't get lost."

With that, he swung the door open and sauntered into the house, Mike, Beth, and I in tow.

I nearly choked when I saw the inside.

To the left of us was a massive leather couch facing a sixty-four inch flat screen TV that was mounted on the wall above the stone fireplace. Straight ahead was what looked like a bar scene, and behind, it lead into a kitchen that was about the size of our living room.

"HANNAH!" Josh's loud voice echoed through the large house.

There was a crash from upstairs, loud footsteps, and a girl skidded into view from the hallway to our right, a wild look in her eyes. "What?!" she asked, out of breath.

The girl looked like Beth. _Exactly_ like Beth. Sort of. Her black hair was straight, but it was longer. She had a pair of square glasses with black frames. Her face was narrower than Beth's and she seemed to be a bit taller, but the differences ended there. She wore a pair of short shorts and tank top. She was pretty too, but something about Beth was just…enticing, drawing me in like a gravitational field.

"Hannah, I'd like you to meet Alex and Mike Munroe."

Mike and I shook Hannah's hand. She smiled at me when she shook mine and…blushed? Had she blushed when she shook Mike's? Probably. Mike was a ladies' man through and through.

"Hannah and I are twins, too!" said Beth brightly as she grinned at me.

"Really?" I drawled, "I couldn't tell."

The Washington siblings laughed and I smiled. I could get used to them, I decided.

* * *

 _Omniscient POV_

Alex and Mike stayed for an hour or so and the group made conversation. They told them about Miami and how their dad got a job offer in LA and jumped for it. Beth paid attention as much as she could when Alex was talking, but even when Mike gave his two sense, she found her eyes drifting back to Alex.

The guy was cute. _Really_ cute. He had dark hair, a bit lighter than hers, but dark nonetheless. It was cut short and stuck up all over the place, like a fashionable bed head. He had eyes the color of melted milk chocolate that Beth could lose herself in. He was well built too, from what she could see and he had an _excellent_ jawline.

After the boys left, Beth shut the door and turned around to see Hannah and Josh standing there, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised, and a smirk prevalent on their faces.

"You think he's cute," said Hannah, not a trace of a questioning tone in her voice.

Beth felt her cheeks heat up, but she just put a hand on her hip and cocked an eyebrow. "You'll have to be more specific."

"You think Alex is cute," clarified Josh.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"You do!" said Hannah.

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too –"

"Well, you thought Mike was cute!"

This time, Hannah flushed and Beth smirked, victorious.

"No I don't," came her feeble response.

"Oh, c'mon, Han, your face lit up red like Rudolph's nose when you shook his hand!"

"Yeah, well…you still like Alex!"

And that was the conversation. It went on like that for a while, the Washington girls arguing about each other liking their respective Munroe boy and Josh threw in a comment every once in a while. It was normal for them, sibling bickering.

Neither girl ever admitted to thinking the Munroe twins were cute.

But, deep down, the twins knew.

Yes, Beth thought Alex was sweet and absolutely adorable.

Yes, Hannah thought Mike was funny and ruggedly handsome.

No, neither girl knew how much trouble both of them would get them into a few years from then.


	2. Chapter Two

**Author's Note:** So, I realized, a lot of the beginning chapters are going to one-shots of pre-game times with Alex, Beth, and the gang. So the, chapters in the beginning will be pretty short, but they'll get longer. So here's this one! Enjoy and review! Follow and Favorite! Please! It feeds my soul! :D

 **Rating:** T, duh. There'll be explicit language, because of the nature of the game, but y'all know what to expect.

 **Disclaimer:** All rights go to Supermassive Games. *SIGH*

 **Editing:** All editing is done by me, so all mistakes are mine.

* * *

 _Chapter One – Late September, 2010_

School Monday morning was terrible. I'm not really sure what I had expected. Probably something along the lines of, _Ooh, I'm in LA, everything's going to be completely awesome here! I'm in the Land of Dreams and Angels! What could possibly go wrong?_

Well, ninth grade geometry, for one. I was never one for math, and the teacher, Mr. Fitzpatrick, seemed to like proving that. And it was my first day there. Tallying it up, I was called on three times and up to the board four to explain problems that I didn't even begin to understand. And it was all in a forty-five minute span.

So there was that.

Mike and I had English, History, and PE together (and lunch with the ninth and tenth graders), but that was where the similar classes ended, which was absolutely awful. But what _wasn't_ awful, was that Beth and I's schedules lined up almost perfectly. The only difference was that she took ninth period art whilst I took physical education. But, Mike had Hannah in nearly all his classes too, so each of us had our respective guide to get us where we needed to be.

During our sixth period lunch, Josh, Hannah, and Beth introduced Mike and I to all of their friends. I was walking with Beth down the hallway to the cafeteria.

"Where we going?" I asked.

Beth grinned at me. "The highlight of everyone's day: lunch."

I made a face. "Are you telling me this school has _decent_ cafeteria food?"

Beth shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine, don't believe me. You'll learn."

"Oh, c'mon, it can't be that good. No high school has good cafeteria food."

"You're right, Alex, it's not good. It's _delicious_."

I glared at her as she licked her lips and flounced ahead of me to get in the line for the main course. I was pretty sure if she ever licked her lips like that again while looking at me the way she had been, I would spontaneously combust. That girl would seriously be the death of me.

After some brief confusion in the lunch line and Beth snickering at me as she ordered her food, I finally managed to get my cheeseburger and fries. I had to admit – the food didn't look bad. I'd go as far to say that it actually smelled quite pleasant, which put me on guard. What cafeteria food smelled good and actually tasted good? The answer was none.

Except at Lakeview High School (though I'm not sure why it was called Lakeview, there was literally no lake in sight).

I could go into an hour seminar alone on how perfectly the burger was seasoned. Beth was certainly correct. It was delicious. Of course, I didn't know that when I sat down though.

Beth led me to her table, which was already inhabited by Josh, Hannah, and Mike, and a few others I didn't recognize.

I wedged myself between Mike and Beth and Mike grinned at me. He was sitting next to a pretty Asian girl with shoulder length black hair with an olive complexion. Her almond eyes were narrowed in my direction like a piece of meat she was going to snap up any second. I didn't like that. At all.

Anyway, Mike subtly jerked his head back towards the Asian girl and winked at me. I snorted and rolled my eyes in response as I looked around the table.

"Guy and gals, this is my brother, Alex. I think we can all see who the more attractive twin is," said Mike with a grin.

The table chuckled at that as I gave my signature awkward wave and smile.

"Alex, that's Chris, Emily, Jessica, and Sam," said Mike. He pointed at each one and all of them smiled and waved back.

Emily, the Asian, raised her eyebrow, looking between Mike and me. She shrugged at me. "I think Mike's right. He's definitely the more attractive twin." Then she proceeded to wink at my brother.

I frowned at that while a blonde – Jessica, I think – busted up laughing next to her.

"At least I'm not wearing buckets of eyeliner," I said before biting into a fry. I thought the little quips would be done at that. I was wrong.

I'm an easy going guy, don't get me wrong. Always have been, always will be. But there was just something about Emily that got me going. She made my blood boil and I'd see red every time she opened her mouth. Being the new guy at the table, it probably wasn't in my best interest to mouth off to her. But I hate bullies. And I wasn't about to put up with one just because she wanted in Mike's pants. (She probably didn't at the time, we were fifteen. On the other hand, what do I know, maybe she did.)

I picked up my cheeseburger to take a bite, wanting to see if it was really as great as Beth had told me, and then, "Why would you, sweetie, you're a boy. And it's not like it would help anyway." Emily was looking at me like, _Make a move, bitch._

There was a low chorus of 'ooh's that mainly only came from Jessica and, you guessed it, my own brother, Mike. I didn't mind him joining in, I knew he was just messing. But Emily wasn't.

At that point, all eyes were on me. Emily and Jessica were smirking. Mike was wriggling his eyebrows at me like an idiot, and I could hear his voice in my head, begging me to snipe right back at her. Josh was looking between Emily and me like we were the best thing on program television. Beth had eyebrow raised, silently questioning my next move, and so did Hannah. The new ones, or, rather, the ones new to me, looked scared for my life.

I calmly put my cheeseburger on my plate, folded my hands, and looked at Emily. I put on the biggest shit-eating grin I could muster and said, "Why would you then, Emily?" I shrugged at her. "You seem like a cow."

The uproar at the table was loud. And I mean, _loud._ Like, deafening. The chorus of 'ooh's came from everyone this time, _except_ Emily and Jessica. When the table died down, the two girls pushed out their chairs and made a beeline for the bathroom. After they were out of sight, everyone looked at me.

The guy across from me, next to Josh – Chris – grinned at me. "That was risky, hombre. But I'd like to thank you, because someone needed to take her down a notch."

"Yeah, props to you, new kid," said the other blonde, Sam. She was grinning at me. "I've been daring someone to say something to her since seventh grade. No one's had the guts."

After that, everyone started to settle into their regular conversation. Chris and Josh were talking across the table, and Mike jumped in every once in a while. Sam and Hannah were talking animatedly, and I could tell they were best friends. Everyone's conversation overlapped a few times, and we all laughed together before going back to their own little talks.

Midway through my cheeseburger that I was practically inhaling because it was so delicious, Beth tapped me on the shoulder. With my mouth full of chewed food, I turned to her. She was grinning at me like she'd won the lottery. The fluorescent lights above us caught her eyes just right and they gleamed like dark honey. I swallowed kind of roughly, feeling like I had burger lodged in my throat.

After washing it down with a swig of water, I turned back to Beth. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because you like the burger," said Beth, and if it was possible, she smiled even wider.

I scoffed at her and looked at the burger in my hand before tossing it down on my tray. "Pfft…no, I don't."

Beth gave me an astounded look. "Yes, you do!"

"You have no proof," I said simply, crossing my arms.

"Half of your burger is gone! And you have no fries left!"

"Maybe I'm starving."

She stared at like I'd dropped from space and then snorted at me. "You're unbelievable."

"What do you mean? You've known me for, like, two days! Me and Mike's parents could very well not feed us!"

"You sound even more like an idiot than usual."

I frowned and knitted my eyebrows together. "Back to the 'two days' thing…yeah, you've still only known me for _two days!_ How do you know what I sound like usually?"

Beth shrugged. "You're predictable."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too!"

"I am not predictable!"

"Your favorite color's orange!"

I paused, wrinkling my nose. "How'd you know that?"

Beth rolled her eyes and took a bite of her own burger. "See? Idiot."

"Hey! I was just wondering!"

She pointedly looked down at my shirt. My bright freakin' orange Dolphins jersey.

I glared at her for half a second before going back to my cheeseburger. "I hate you," I mumbled into my food.

Beth laughed and pushed my arm just as we were dismissed to seventh period.

In the last few minutes of lunch, talking and joking with Beth, I hadn't realized one crucial thing at our table. When we started to talk, the table had gotten quiet. Really quiet. Until it had just been the entire table staring at us, grinning like idiots.

Of course, I hadn't noticed. I was too busy listening to Beth tell me about our next class with rapt attention, if I must say so myself. Mike told me later that evening about how he saw us hitting it off. Then he proceeded to tell me that the entire lunch table had seen us hitting it off. At the time, I brushed it off as a little crush. All guys had them, right? Right.

Only I wasn't aware that it'd get worse. Much worse. So as it got worse, I did what any fifteen year old boy would do. I ignored it.


	3. Chapter Three

**Author's Note:** I've had this sitting around on my hard drive for like, a long time. Sorry for forgetting to post! But here's the first part of a two-shot, so yeah! Review, follow, favorite, the gout! But especially review. (And look at my other stories, k thx :D.)

 **Rating:** T, duh. There'll be explicit language, because of the nature of the game, but y'all know what to expect.

 **Disclaimer:** All rights go to Supermassive Games. *SIGH*

 **Editing:** All editing is done by me, so all mistakes are mine.

* * *

 _Chapter Three – Early October, 2010_

Mike and I walked into the Washington's house full of confidence and bursting with arrogance. We'd just gotten home from school. Our arms and legs were aching from a week full of football practices for tryouts. We had tryouts that day and the training had paid off (thank God). We made the junior varsity team as starters. Mike made quarterback, of course, and I would play halfback and a corner on defense.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the two newest starters of the Lakeview High football team?" Josh said rounding the corner with a grin, a large bowl of popcorn in each hand. Mike and I had played ball back in Miami, but Josh was the one to convince us to try out here. I was glad we took his advice.

Mike struck a pose. "You're looking at the quarterback of your JV team, my man," he said.

I rolled my eyes and looked at Josh. "He's an idiot."

Josh snorted and jerked his head towards the hall. "C'mon in, Beth, Hannah, Sam, and Jess are in the theater. We're just waiting on…well, everyone else."

"Are Matt and Ash coming?" Mike asked.

Matt and Ashley were two eighth graders that we were friends with as well. Chris had a _massive_ crush on Ashley, and everyone knew it. He had introduced us to her. Ash and I got along well. But on the other hand, I'd come to realize that despite how well we'd gotten along that first day, Chris and I were at odds. We argued a lot that first week Mike and I arrived at Lakeview, and eventually we got the message. We didn't talk a lot after that.

Matt was just a laid back guy that Mike and I met at football tryouts. He was one of the starting wide receivers, which was impressive for an eighth grader on JV. We were all fairly certain he had a crush on Emily, too, but he wisely didn't do anything about it. It was _Emily_. Besides, she had been after Mike since we'd gotten to Los Angeles.

"Yeah, they're coming. Let's go, boys."

Josh led us into the theater where we were all sitting in the front row. I plopped down between Jessica and Mike while Josh sat by Sam and passed one of the bowls of popcorn our way.

Beth was between Hannah and Jess and she leaned over Jess to look at me. "Nice of you to show up, superstar," she said with a smirk.

I knitted my eyebrows together. "We're here before, like, everyone else!"

"Yeah, but Jess got here before you. I just wanna give you a hard time." Beth stuck her tongue out at me.

I looked at her really seriously. "We're gonna fight."

She leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms, not bothering to look at me. I could see the half grin on her face as she said, "Bite me."

I opened my mouth to respond, but Jessica beat me to it. She had been sitting between Beth and me, watching back and forth between us like we were a tennis match, eating popcorn from the bowl. "Okay, that's enough! Alex, switch me seats."

"What, why—" I began.

"Just do it!"

I raised my hands in surrender and stood up, then sitting back down in Jess's seat. She handed me the bowl of popcorn.

"There," she grumbled, "Now I don't have to listen to you two flirting obviously while both of you are oblivious." She turned to my brother and started chatting him up before I could ask what she was talking about.

"What was that about?" Beth asked.

I shrugged as I dug out some popcorn and flicked it into my mouth. "I have no idea."

Beth was staring at me. "Did you just catch that in your mouth?"

I stopped chewing and looked at her. "You can't do that?"

"Oh my gosh, no I can't do that, that was so cool! Here!" Beth pulled out a piece of popcorn and threw it at me. It hit my forehead as I frowned.

"You just threw popcorn at me," I observed, rather stupidly.

"You were supposed to catch it!"

"My mouth is down here!"

"Well, yeah, but you could move it up there!"

"What do you take me for, personal entertainment?"

Beth paused and then shrugged. "Yeah, kinda!"

I snorted as the rest of the group filtered into the row behind us. Ashley and Matt were behind me. Ashley brightened when she saw me. "Hi, Alex!"

I grinned and looked over my shoulder. "Hey, Ash. Hi, Matt."

Matt smiled and waved at me slightly.

I nearly gagged when I saw Emily sidle up to Mike and him sling his arm casually around her. They weren't dating, no. They were barely friends. Honestly, the situation was rather annoying.

"Alright, ladies and gents, turn all cell phones off and shut up as the film begins!" announced Josh as the lights dimmed and the movie began to play. It was some horror film called _The Last House on the Left_ that Josh's dad had helped produce and direct about a year or so ago.

"Have you seen this yet?" Beth leaned over and whispered to me as the opening scenes began to play. I felt her hand touch mine as she dug into the popcorn bowl. She didn't pull away quickly, like I'd expected, but instead, grabbed the piece of popcorn in my hand and stole it, popping it in her mouth while she grinned at me cheekily.

I swallowed roughly and shook my head. She was really close to my face. And I mean _really_ close. It was vaguely distracting. Okay, it was extremely distracting. I shoved my thoughts down and shook my head again, the slightest bit, to clear my mind. "Nope. Not particularly a fan of horror films."

Beth looked at me seriously. "You do realize my dad _directs_ horror films, right?"

"I'm aware," I said dryly. "It's unfortunate, really."

"Why's that?"

"Because that means you like horror movies and you're gonna make fun of me when I scream like a little girl."

"Oh, you won't scream."

"Yes, I will."

"No, you won't, it's not even that scary."

"Hey, love birds, quiet down!" I heard a voice hiss. I think it was Sam. Either her or Hannah, I couldn't tell, really. Beth and I instantly shut up, my face going bright red. I couldn't see her in the dark, but I'd find out later that Beth was blushing heavily too.

Anyway, I was holding her to that. The movie not being scary. I really shouldn't have, considering her father was a horror movie mogul. It wasn't scary. It was _beyond_ terrifying.

About halfway through, I peed my pants. Okay, not really, but I came close.

We were all sitting there and watching the movie as the protagonist crept through the scary house. The music was building and, of course, there was a jump scare. It wasn't bad at all, in retrospect. If anything, Jess jumped a little beside me and Beth didn't even flinch.

But I screamed.

Loudly, high pitched, terrified.

Suddenly, the movie stopped rolling and the lights turned up. Everyone around me was cracking up laughing and Josh appeared a second later, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes.

"Oh my god…Alex…don't tell me…" he cried.

"Starter on the JV team…scared of a movie!" joked Emily with glee.

The tips of my ears burned and I could feel my face heating up. I set my jaw and avoided eye contact. "Yeah, I'm not exactly a fan, sue me," I muttered.

The laughter doubled. It was horrible. After they all calmed down, Josh resumed the movie, but I wasn't into it.

I sulked the rest of the movie, not really paying attention. When it was finally over a bit later, the lights rose and I went to put my popcorn bowl on the back counter. A hand landed on my arm, and I had to use all my willpower to not flinch slightly. I turned. It was Beth.

"Are you okay?" she asked me, eyebrows knitted together.

"I'm fine," I mumbled, shrugging off her hand, but she caught my arm again before I could walk away.

"Oh, come off it, Alex, you're clearly not fine. It's because we laughed at you, wasn't it?"

I didn't answer, but I suppose no answer was obvious enough to Beth. She seemed to instantly understand. She smiled at me, an encouraging half grin, and tugged on my hand. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" I asked, letting her drag me along.

"The roof."

She didn't say anything else, and I didn't question her. I needed to get away from everyone; I felt like I was being suffocated. So I let Beth drag me to the roof. Apparently.


End file.
